Yes, that's why I clicked something online. But within the past week I've read something in all of the categories mentioned except the non-fiction book and it's just a coincidence that I didn't do that.

That was my thought. Or maybe you responded to the poll without reading anything. Maybe you're illiterate and just like clicking on buttons. Or maybe you have your browser configured to turn off all text and you just select poll answers blindly.

If one is responding to this poll, by definition the last thing one has read is something online, right?
Although I "read" slashdot, I don't consider it "reading". It is too interactive to meet my definition of reading. Now, you can read the articles linked to by some of slashdot's summaries, and I would consider THAT reading, but nobody actually reads the articles. They just read the summary and then try to work in some angle where they can use the contents of the summary to bash Republicans or Christian

No, this was a very sensible poll. We all know that the large majority of the people here never read the articles, so I guess that we all want to know what they did read (if anything) before responding.

It's either that, or all those comments saying RTFA are meant to be humorous.:-)

I am unable to understand why any sane man would spend reading time on anything but technical manuals.

Well, considering how many people enjoy books, and considering how almost all people enjoy fictional stories in some form, and therefore should be able to at least understand how some may enjoy written fiction, there is only one conclusion: very few men are sane..

I would say the evolution of the Vimes character makes the reading order of the guards books important - I don't think it would make any sense to read those out of sequence.

They also reference earlier stories quite frequently in passing comments about events or characters not central to the current story.

If I was recommending where to start, I'd suggest reading Guards Guards first to get a feel for them, then go back to The Light Fantastic and work through them in order. He took a couple of books to get in

As I read the results now, nearly 2/3 of those polled clicked something other than "Something Online" (or "Print is dead").

I know people are into multitasking today, but I never realized so many people would read a poll question on Slashdot, then go read a novel, and then come back and click the button to respond to the poll.

I'd like to see more research into this area -- perhaps polls asking questions like "What is the last thing you thought about?" or "What was the last thing you moved your mouse over?"

Eventually, we can move to the truly puzzling poll questions, like "Are you lying in your response to this poll? Yes or No."

I read my twitter stream on the train on the way to work this morning and read a few emails when I got to my desk and then a couple of new stories form the local online newspaper (does that count as newspaper or online?), then a couple of stories on SlashDot. Plenty of trivial in there.

I figure the spirit of the question is blindingly obvious, but whatever. My only uncertainty was whether to choose from the book I just finished (which was fiction), or the one I'm now in the middle of reading (which is non-fiction).

Thank God for that clarification! With the additional information you provided about your vote, we can now make a more informed analysis of the poll results. You have helped the future poll interpretations be less skewed, good sir. This sentence will now simply refer to itself as simply being more facetiously grandiose praise because the author has run out of clever phrases and is hoping this counts.

I figure the spirit of the question is blindingly obvious, but whatever.

Phrasing a poll question on a nerd site that so easily falls to the most cursory of pedantic analyses (i.e., a glance), must, in my estimation, either be intentional, or is naïvely presumptive about some nerds' abilities to not subconscious evaluate the logic of whatever questions/statements may be before them.

If the pollster wanted the extant skew to occur—well, congratulations—mission accomplished. If not, then I must conclude that the poll's author fucked up—not the thousands of re

It's not obvious to me. I suppose it's what another commenter said, The latest [non-trivial] thing you read, but still, do I include doxygen documentation for the code I'm working on? News articles? Well, for me it's easy as I'd have to use a complex definition to exclude all the online stuff and include the scientific papers I printed out or the novel I read at night

So you sat down on your computer, opened up your webbrowser and navigated to slashdot.org without first going to any other sites and only clicked on the poll before reading any of the articles?
I only read the summaries and I don't consider that reading. If I had read any articles, I would probably consider that reading, but only if it was actually of any journalistic value.

My answer to the poll's question would be different depending on which time of the day that I would be asked:* I always read the newspaper in the morning while I eat breakfast.* I often read on-line in-depth articles during the day and evening, either in a trade magazine or online (frequent visitor to Ars Technica.. which a third of Slashdot topics seem to link to anyway)* I often end the day with a good book (fiction).

And as to the question if visiting Slashdot itself would constitute the answer "Something Online", I would answer: No, not unless you have actually clicked a link in a story and read the article that the story links to.

1) Huffington Post RSS feed for news headlines.
2) Some linked article if I want more detail
3) Twitter for up to the moment news, and @GreatDismal
4) Facebook for family news
5) Bunch of other web sites for specific information
6) Books, fiction, from Library

The last book I finished was "The Wehrmacht on the Western Front", almost a text book (re-reading). The last book I'm still actively reading is about the Bismarck (again, a re-read). For fun. I need help.

The last book I finished was "The Wehrmacht on the Western Front", almost a text book (re-reading). The last book I'm still actively reading is about the Bismarck (again, a re-read). For fun. I need help.

Or company. I'm reading "The Russian Court at Sea" - about the embarkation and exodus of the surviving Romanovs from Yalta (the Crimea) in 1918/1919. As Rasputin/(Boney M), said "Oh, those Russians...".

I still get this in dead tree form. I can keep it in the bathroom (where electronics aren't welcome) and I get a look at international news that is so hard to come by in the US. That and Playboy (yes, Playboy) will be the last magazines I give up.

For the same reasons that you stated about the bathroom, I have for quite some time, and will always subscribe to National Geographic as well as The Smithsonian. My poopin' time just isn't complete without a quick read-through of the latest art/history/nature/humanity article.

If I read anything these days, its on the screen. I read (science) fiction books I purchase from Baen and downloaded. I read magazines and newspapers in Kindle format on my tablet. These days you don't get a Manual , you get a PDF file om the disc with the driver software.And of course I read Slashdot online.

"Something Online" is the medium "Fiction" or "Non-Fiction" is the content. So how can the options Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Something Online, all be in the same poll? What if I read Fiction online, or read Non-Fiction online?

The polls are quick and dirty constructions -- as the disclaimer states -- mostly in fun with some effort done in earnest; meaning, there is always going to be a lack of clarity in its design, opening it up for discussion. In this case, it's a classic mistake of confusing medium and message. The answer then to your rhetorical question is: The pollster made a mistake.:)

Just finished it last week. I enjoyed Little Brother a bit more (partly due to the newness, I'm sure -- this one was somewhat more of the same) but I couldn't get into For the Win at all so I was very pleased by this one. Very British (only a couple times too much so) and I dig the idea of kids talking like Dickens characters for fun. Read it for free here. [craphound.com] My other favorite by him is Makers. [craphound.com]

I'm amazed at how good books are these days. $30 gets a nice hard cover book with ~300 pages of full colour, high quality, informative, pictures and star charts.
I wish books of this quality had been so easily available and affordable when I was a lad.

Instead of the not so well chosen option "something online" I would like to propose "A badly written proposal" as this was the latest thing (beside a/. article and a news article) I read. In most cases I read papers from other people who sometimes suck. So "Scientific Paper" would also be a great option. Or a "Fox-News Article", which would be the total opposite of the "Scientific Paper" option. However, that could also be rated under "Fiction" or better "Phantasy".

Just returned the dead-tree version to the public library. I only got it because they didn't have Neal Stephenson for some reason, but I had heard him compared to William Gibson a lot, so I gave it a try.

Too much hipster brand-name dropping for my tastes. I didn't identify with any of the characters. I didn't really learn anything I didn't already know (though the way he describes one of the main characters reacting in stupor to dropping terms like 'steganography' made me feel stupid by empathy anyway...

iBooks provides a good reading experience for the British music mags to which I subscribe (Sound on Sound, Computer Music, Future Music). But more important for me, they're cheaper than the dead tree versions AND I don't have to look like an old man with a house full of magazines and newspapers. I only wish there were an equivalent on my Mac because I don't trust Apple to always give me access to content I have purchased previously.

Does no one read the newspaper any more. I choose newspaper, i read the Metro on the way to work and the evening standard
on the way home. I probably wouldn't read a newspaper at all, but both those sheet are free, and given out on the london underground.

That's a classic! I've read that so many times and enjoy it every time. I suppose I should read it once or twice before I get around to seeing the upcoming movies... Or I might skip the movies altogether so as not to ruin the images in my head.